Religion, community service, and identity in American youth

The role of religion in identity development has, for many years, been a re latively neglected topic in psychology. To demonstrate the importance of re ligion to the formation of identity, this paper presents evidence connectin g community service and religiousness in American youth. Data are reviewed that show (1) youth are heavily involved in volunteer service; (2) many you th view religion as important and those who do so are more likely to do ser vice than youth who do not believe that religion is important in their live s; (3) involvement in church-sponsored service makes it more likely that yo uth will adopt the religious rationale in which service is couched; and (4) youth who do church-sponsored service are neither service "nerds" nor sing le-issue tunnel-visioned adolescents. These data from nationally representa tive samples strengthen the case that the many contemporary youth who take religion seriously are vibrantly engaged in their schooling, in the betterm ent of communities, and the development of identities which presage healthy lives. (C) 1999 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolesce nts.